Amanda Knox released in Perugia: the US media have been critical of the Italian prosecutors’ 'far-fetched' case against her. Photograph: Olycom SPA / Rex Features

The dramatic release of Amanda Knox has been widely welcomed by the US media, with a number of journalists arguing she should never have been found guilty of Meredith Kercher's murder.

Articles written in the wake of the 24-year-old American's courtroom victory have been heavily critical of the Italian prosecutors' "far-fetched" case against her, with one comparing her treatment to the Salem witch trials of 1692.

But they also praised the Italian justice system for allowing Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, to automatically appeal against their convictions.

An editorial published in the Seattle Times said the jury that overturned Knox's conviction concluded "what many have long suspected".

It said: "The case against former University of Washington student Amanda Knox was always just too far-fetched. An Italian jury concluded what many have long suspected - Knox certainly was guilty of goofy, insensitive behaviour and pot use. But there was never sufficient evidence to prove she murdered her roommate, whom she knew only a few weeks."

The newspaper, published in Knox's home city, said that, despite negative comments about the Italian justice system, the courts allow for two automatic appeals, with the first leading to the release of Knox and her former lover.

The online article added: "The 2007 murder case is a tragedy on many fronts. Kercher's family has every right to want justice for their slain beloved daughter and sister. The family has ached deeply for four years.

"But the other tragedy is for a Seattle family and Knox, who has spent more than 1,000 days of her young life behind bars."

It also spoke of the sense of "relief" in the Seattle and University of Washington community and said it was time for Knox to "resume her life".

"This case always seemed like a bad novel and somewhat, somehow, overblown and distorted," it added.

Meanwhile, New York Times journalist Timothy Egan said there were lessons to be learned from the case.

In an article published on the newspaper's website, Egan wrote that for Knox, the tragic junior "year" abroad was over at long last.

"For that, we have to thank an Italian legal system that essentially gives every convicted criminal a do-over - more formally, an appeal before fresh eyes. Bravo for Italy," he said.

Egan said the jurors came to the same conclusion that any fair-minded person would have done, and declared: "There was no way, based on forensic evidence that was a joke by international standards and a non-existent motive that played to medieval superstitions, to find Knox and her boyfriend Sollecito guilty of the 2007 killing of Meredith Kercher, her British roommate in Perugia."

He said a "global media cabal had initially turned Amanda into a villainous cartoon" despite her having no criminal record or motive for killing Miss Kercher.

"I half-expected prosecutors to throw Knox in a tank of water to see if she sank or floated, à la the Salem witch trials," he added.

Nina Burleigh of the Los Angeles Times claimed Knox was subjected to "misogynistic" behaviour in the case against her - which was driven by "her femaleness, her Americanness, her beauty".

"In person, in prison and in the media, Knox was subjected to all manner of outlandish, misogynistic behaviour," she wrote.

"To the Italian authorities, her careless seductiveness juxtaposed with the ghastly scene inside her house were clues to the witch, the deliberate player of men: their theory was that she was not only a murderer but a murderous mastermind.""